Various types of automated processing systems have been developed to abrasively process articles of various compositions and configurations. For example, coated abrasive strips, rolls or tapes, fed from automatic abrasive feed machines are employed to process parts, such as automobile and powertrain parts (e.g., crankshaft, camshaft, transmission shaft, steering shaft, steering rod). Although conventional automatic abrasive feed machinery systems provide some degree of automation, certain aspects remain manual, and are prone to error, such as proper loading of rolls of abrasive onto feed machines, including the type of abrasive for the part to be processed, and orientation of the roll. Manual examination and verification is time consuming and costly. Errors caused by operators can have very deleterious results, resulting in significant waste during manufacture. In addition, conventional micro-finishing film rolls are generally limited to continuous rolls, because splices are not typically acceptable for processing an article, and are not readily identifiable automatically. Generally, such continuous micro-finishing film rolls do not exceed 1,600 feet due to the challenges associated with coating evenly for long runs.
Therefore, there is a need for methods of detecting a splice joining two different sections of a coated abrasive product, in particular, fed from an automatic abrasive feed machine during processing of an article, which can reduce or eliminate one or more of the above-mentioned problems.